Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Italian Baseball

Plaque remembering USS Lancaster and USS Quinnebaug 1884 baseball match, LivornoBritish sailors teached us football (soccer) and we learned quite well. Long before this, American sailors tried to teach us baseball, with not so good results. In 1884, on January 23 and the following days, the crews of the USS Lancaster and USS Quinnebaug met in Livorno, on the “Campo d'Osservazione” (Observation Field), for an unknown number of innings.Former Campo d'Osservazione, LivornoA plaque was placed in 2001 by the Italian Baseball Federation on a wall of the “Gymnasium” to commemorate the first ever game of baseball played in Italy and, probably, in continental Europe. The “Campo d'Osservazione” is now a football (soccer) field.

Related post: Ménio

Awards

Jacob of Ocala Daily Photo and The Villages Daily Photo gave us the “Honest Scrap” award.

I appreciate his intention and his serious interest for LDP, but I think that this, as many other “awards”, would be better to stop.
If I give 8 new awards to fellow bloggers and everyone complies with the rules, in a week we'll have more than 16 million awards and counting. So what is the purpose of this?
The better way to give an award to a friend blogger is to follow his or her blog, link it on your page, quote it in your posts and just keep in touch.
I hope my friend Jacob will understand, I appreciate his work, his comments and his advice. I am very happy to have just discovered his Villages blog and consider this a very good prize.

15 comments:

Tash said...

I had to check if I was in the right city. Well done! not something you see every day - in Italy.

Mission4Christ Media said...

One of the thing I do that gives me joy, happiness, and makes me feel good is football....I always like to see a football field around me even if the standard is low...Nice composition..

I have a post about me playing football "LOST PASSION AND DREAM." :)

joo said...

Probably will never understand rules in baseball.
Interesting post, I'm with Tash - not every day view in Italy:)

brattcat said...

Here in Brattleboro baseball is in full swing. All the little ball parks are busy in the evenings and on the weekends. There are teams of children and teams of adults.

B SQUARED said...

Baseball is a game one has to grow up with to understand. There are so many rules that is difficult to learn.

Layrayski said...

Enjoyed the history bit. =) Not much of a football nor baseball fan. But its nice hearing about the sports from your city's perspective. =)

James said...

Hello, First congratulations for the award. Secondly that's very interesting about the Italian baseball history. I don't think of Italy when I think of baseball unless I'm thinking of Joe DiMaggio.:-)

Hilda said...

Baseball hasn't made it big here either, though there are a few school teams that are trying.

Even if you didn't really accept the award, congratulations anyway! I think you deserve it, being such an honest scrap yourself :)

Lowell said...

What an interesting post...who would think that the first baseball game was played in Livorno? I had no idea baseball was even that old!

I understand re: the awards, VP...I think you may be right...

amatamari© said...

Incredible!
And who knows why the Italians are best in the game of football?

p.s.
Congratulations for the award,
you deserve!
:-)

cieldequimper said...

Are there rugby players in Livorno?

Halcyon said...

There are few things more boring to me than baseball. Be glad that your country took to football (soccer) instead!

Antjas said...

Halcyon beat me to the punch. I have to agree that it can be quite boring to watch, almost as bad as golf. More fun to play. However, last time I went to a baseball game I was really excited because I had my camera and there were so many interesting things to photograph!

I also agree whole heartedly about the awards. Visiting and commenting is the greatest honor. Thanks for visiting my site.

Copenhagen said...

I used to like baseball when I was a kid and I even played it one year.

And I'm back for a bit then I'm off to a busy schedule again. Thank you for commenting all my blog.

Stefan Jansson said...

There is a Baseball league in Sweden, but I'm not a fan of the sport but I'm rereading a book with some Baseball in it.

I completely agree with you when it comes to the awards.